LITMIR.BIZ

      Zac wasn’t sure what he’d said during the keynote speech, but it must have been the right thing because people were coming up and slapping him on the back, making all the right noises and responses.

      He wasn’t sure what he’d said because his brain was still trying to assimilate everything Rose had told him. She wanted him to believe that she’d done it all for her sick father.

      He remembered Séamus O’Malley. He’d always been nice to Zac, and had let him sit up at the front of the car when his grandparents hadn’t been around. His accent used to fascinate Zac, and he would tell him stories of Ireland and tales of great Irish warriors.

      It unnerved him now, how vivid those memories still were.

      But if everything Rose had said was true, then why the hell hadn’t she just told him from the start? Of course he would have helped her father. Could he really believe that she’d been all but blackmailed by his grandmother into trapping him with a pregnancy?

      All Zac had to do was think of his grandmother’s cold, imperious face and one word resounded in his head: yes.

      Rose’s impassioned defence when he’d questioned her intelligence came back now, too, and he felt his chest grow tight. He took this world for granted, but he knew powerful people could be intimidating—and there was nothing more intimidating than the threat of legal action, especially when you couldn’t afford it.

      Suddenly the conversation around him stopped and a familiar scent reached his nostrils. His companions were looking at someone behind him and he turned around slowly. His eyes widened incredulously.

      Rose stood before him in the same black dress she’d worn the first night they’d met. It shimmered and clung to every curve, and to the small proud swell of her belly. Dimly he recognised that it had grown bigger in just the space of a week, and the knowledge made him feel as if something was slipping a mooring inside him.

      Her hair was down, she wore no make-up, yet she was luminous. Ethereal. His fey enchantress. His betrayer.

      His voice sounded hoarse to his ears. ‘What are you doing here?’

      She came closer. ‘I need to say something else.’

      Aware of the spike in interest around them, Zac said tersely, ‘Now is hardly the time to continue this conversation.’

      He saw the pulse at the base of her neck beating hectically and his own blood throbbed in response.

      ‘Now is as good a time as any.’

      Zac was aware of the keen interest of everyone around them and took Rose’s arm in his hand, pulling her away from prying eyes and flapping ears.

      He walked her over to a quieter spot and let her go. ‘Well? What’s so important it couldn’t wait?’

      She took a deep breath, which made her breasts rise against the dress. Distracting.

      ‘I need you to know that there was always so much more to this for me—from the first night we met. The last thing I wanted to do was betray you…or derail your life… Even when I knew I was being unconscionably selfish in going back to your apartment with you that day, I told myself that you’d make sure we were protected. I thought I could take a sliver of what you were offering and then walk away and never see you again. It would be my secret, to hold tight forever.’

      She gestured to the dress with a jerky movement.

      ‘I just wanted to try and show you that the girl you met that night was the girl you thought I was. Unbelievably naive and gauche. But I was caught up in something I didn’t know how to navigate. And yes, there was an agenda, but I hated every moment of the deception.’

      She grabbed his hand then and placed it over her small belly. He could feel her trembling.

      ‘The truth is that I fell in love with you, Zac, and I don’t regret for a second that we’re having this baby, no matter how it came about, because for me this baby will be born out of love.’